What is your story?

[Csbrown5]

My story

For me it started when I was 8 I am 66 now, I lived in Cleveland Ohio my dad said that we were going to Tennessee to visit your grandmother, she had 100 arces here is my chance to have fun with a BB gun, when I got there my dad said here you are have fun son, your mother and I are headed to the beach, the beach I have never been to the beach oh well. I now live in Alabama 

In 2017 I had a squirrel problem so I bought a Benjamin 392 15 yards was hitting 2 out of 3 shots, I need something better, found this website AGN a guy had a Marauder 177 for sale, so happen that he lived 10 miles from me and after that it was all over, I started my Collection or should I say Addiction for air guns.

I had all 4 Marauder 177 22 25 & 22 pistol, I have sold all them and move to the next level I now have 5 Daystate air guns & 1 FX Royale, where does it end?

 

[dizzums]

my pop got us shooting probably around 6 and by 11 i had my own .22 rifle in my possession .. we had pump 760s too .. as i got older living in a bigger city wed go out shooting but not so much around the house ... not till later in life i moved rural and got into gardening and chickens etc i realized i was ill prepared to deal with the onslaught of pests .. went through the cheap gun airgun stage with 6-8 springers of all varieties and that didnt knock a dent in them .. then i got an mrod .25 and i started winning the battle lol .. the rest is history ...

 

[Peashooter]

Started shooting 15 M rimfire when i was 9 or 10, then also 50 M rinfire outdoor in the summer, when i was 11 i also shot 200 M with 7.92 mm rifles, i think it was ww2 Mausers, worked like a charm though fitted with sports sights.

One day shooting 200 M on the lane beside the club champion, we started at the same time, and i dont know what he shot, but he noticed i shot 4 X out of my 5 line-up shots,,,,,, my actual series went to hell as he commented that we seemed to be pretty good shooters.

I did get 4 place in the club championship on 200 M,,,,,,, BUT ! only 4 shooters in my age bracket. all of them older than me, and i assume probably also more experienced.



Shooting is not something you learn from family as gun ownership are pretty much out of the question, at least unless you are a hunter, and i assume some have had their kid with them and allowed for them to squeeze off a few.

in my case being a city kid living in the #2 largest town here, it was solely a club thing, and it was my mother that nurtured my hobby, not my communist father which never saw me shoot as far as i remember.

Anyway it was a 3 year fab in the mid 70ties and then it was over, i turn 56 this year. when i came of age and there actually was a draft here with about 70% getting drafted for a 1 year stint,,,,, well they took one look at me and said O hell no,,,,,, and i can assure you they dident say that as they knew of my shady " side activities" maybe it was my skinny build, or the fact my father was on the committee that oversee the draft and they probably thought " the kid is as red as his father",,,,,, which i have never been, not even just a little pink along the edges.

 

[DonaAna1]

I was dove hunting at 10 with my own Stevens single shot .410. Thanks Mom and Dad.

I have been shooting/hunting since.

 

[cmatera]

I grew up in the ghetto in Chicago. No way to legally own a gun, plenty of illegal guns, but pistols or saw-off shotguns. Fired a rifle for the first time when I was 48. Taught myself how to shoot pistols, rifles and shotguns both PB's and air guns, how to hunt, and how to reload, including brass forming for PB's. I'm 66 now. I missed a lot of good years.

 

[Jasonmc]

Powder burners when I was 10yrs old hunting with dad and grandpa. At 30yrs old my father-in-law and I started squirrel hunting with Springers. We moved into co2 then PCP's... now I'm 50 and still shooting airguns (mainly PCP). Father-in-law is 70 and he is still shooting airguns as well. 

 

[moodyblues]

I started hunting in my yard with dads Benjamin C9 at the age of 7. I could only pump it four times at first, but after a bit I built up to 8 pumps. that started my love of airguns, and around 12 dad bought me an R9 in .177 and a year later I got a deal on a RWS 48 in .22 at a small Tulsa gun show. I found out about precharged guns around that time, this would have been 2001-2003. I found a European airgun magazine in Barnes and Noble that dad bought me. We went back every month or two and picked up the new issue. I dreamt about the BSA guns especially the hornet, then came the Airforce and logun sweet16, they were all I thought about. I couldn’t afford a precharged gun until I was almost thirty with three boys of my own, but when I got it I never looked back.
There’s not very many things that you can dream about for 20 years and not be disappointed when you actually get it. It was better than I imagined!

Beau

 

[Bigragu]

It all started for me way back when around 1970, when I shimmied myself up my parents closet shelves, feeling around the top shelf with my fingertips tip toeing on the third shelf down. I knew something was up there hidden, that my dad brought home from Vietnam. He worked as a security guard, watching a warehouse full of American war supplies, making sure the locals didn’t try and break in to steal.

So home was the in the Philippines, and at 8 years old, I was the typical curious lad that just had to know what my dad used to keep the wolves at bay.

Then I found it…. Ohhhh Booooyyy…

Once I learned what happens when a projectile gets hurled, it was all as they say, “the rest is history”.

slingshots and the BALISONG, true Filipino weapons. Most slingshots were home made, so in my eyes and my friends, I had the Cadillac of all slingshots. 


it wasn’t till years later I fessed up to my dad that I found his hiding spot. The war was long over and he was back home. He told me he used to use 3/8” nuts as the projectiles to keep the thieves out.

Still own a couple of wrist rocket remakes, or copies. Wish I still owned the original 

 

[Raden1942]

For me it was crosman 760 I opened up on Christmas morning. I believe I was 8. Now keep in mind I had shot my dads airguns with him to learn safety and best practices but this day was the day he said go on be safe and have fun. I ignored all the other presents and immediately took it out to the forest behind my house and shot about 500 bbs. At some point weeks down the road my right arm was significantly stronger than my left and I had to start using my left to pump so it didn't look silly. I loved that gun and I have been looking for it for years. I am moving to a new house right now so any day I'm going to pull a box out of the attic and find that great gun. 

 

[beerthief]

IT all started at about 9 years old , my best friend and i would tie our BB guns to the cross bar of the Bicycles and off to the open fields west of Mannheim road and south of Ohara Air port . great times . after the 4 years in the Air Force and still living in Gestapo Illinois powder burners were out so Air guns were in .

Now in Kentucky anything , just about , go's

Anschutz Custom shop made lefty 54 .22 lr bench rest

Pulsar pcp .177

Edgun leshiy Classic in .177 and .25

HW35 oldy .177 beater garage sale special

HW97K 

fwb 600

Morini 162e 

 

[Ezana4CE]

Started with a Crosman 760 pumper as a kid probably younger than 10, then moved to CO2 bb pistols, next I tried pellet revolvers. From there shot a springer or two and many years later discovered PCPs. 

 

[AirNGasman]

Been a shooter of anything that launches a projectile (literally) since I could hold a gun; so over sixty-five years. For multiple reasons the huge majority of that has been holding airguns of every kind.

So far that includes testing the better part of a thousand airguns, authoring five related books, capturing dozens of State & National titles and records, bringing Field Target to Texas by co-founding Texas' first Field Target club, bringing Pistol Field Target and Pistol Extreme Field Target to the world by founding both those competitions, nationalizing a common set of Pistol Field Target rules by taking control of the Pistol Field Target Rules Committee assembled by AAFTA after the Chairman went MIA, thereby rescuing eight months of the committee's work that would have been completely wasted had I not staged said one-man COUP. and last but not least, increasing the participation and growth of airgunning by introducing hundreds of shooters to airguns.

In other words, "Nothing to see here!" 

 

[Csbrown5]

I had scuba tanks, when I found out you can use them with air guns, my first PCP was a Benjamin Bull Dog, my wife love that gun 

 

[Gerry52]

Always had a passion for music, flying & shooting. My life got WAAAAAY off track with drugs, sex and rock & roll ending me up in the "greybar hotel" for a stretch. Firearms are a no-no for me but about 6 years ago I bought a .22 Gamo Varmint Hunter. It was a tack driver ONLY if the head of the tack was 2 feet wide! Started reading about PCP's & watching videos by Ted, Matt & Hunter One. WOW, couldn't believe the accuracy they were getting. All I could afford was a Benjamin Disco. Good enough to get me hitting squirrels at 50 yds. Sold it to help buy a Marauder .22, then I got a Hatsan AT44S, .22. Liked it way better than the Mrod I had. Sold everything, got a Hatsan BT65 in .22 & .25. Worked the crap outa those guns & myself to get the most I could get out of them & me. I liked the progress I was making. Sold those & bought a new FX Royale 500, HOLY CRAP, I'd become a really decent shooter. Didn't know it til I got a decent gun! Next I bought an FX Boss, .30, NOW my abilities started to show. All I ever wanted to do was be able to make a 75 yard squirrel kill. My personal best is 178 yards with the Boss (pellet shooting only) & some days hunting most of my kills are in the 75-135 yard range. I'm TOTALLY addicted again but at least this one won't end up with me doing time! I shoot & have become friends with some great guys & shooters (Centercut, Pesty3782, Socaloldman) & this journey has brought me gifts I'd never expected & opportunities to help out other air addicts like me. This forum is such an amazing venue to learn, connect, give back & grow as a shooter & a person. I feel myself to be a VERY fortunate man. My friend Nick has loaned me a .22 Bobcat that has become just too heavy for him (& I'm thinking of BEGGING him to sell it to me) & the fun just never ends! Made some great long distance pals too from here on the forum (Bigragu, Ezana4ce, Ponzo & others I'm forgetting to mention) & hooking up tomorrow with a guy from GTA forum (Shane) who, it turns out, lives 8 minutes from me. See, the fun never ends with this obsession!!! SO GLAD I got into it! Here's my current "quiver". Just LOVE the FX Original Smooth Twist platform! (Bobcat, Royale, Boss)

 

[Ranchibi]

Always had a passion for music, flying & shooting. My life got WAAAAAY off track with drugs, sex and rock & roll ending me up in the "greybar hotel" for a stretch. Firearms are a no-no for me but about 6 years ago I bought a .22 Gamo Varmint Hunter. It was a tack driver ONLY if the head of the tack was 2 feet wide! Started reading about PCP's & watching videos by Ted, Matt & Hunter One. WOW, couldn't believe the accuracy they were getting. All I could afford was a Benjamin Disco. Good enough to get me hitting squirrels at 50 yds. Sold it to help buy a Marauder .22, then I got a Hatsan AT44S, .22. Liked it way better than the Mrod I had. Sold everything, got a Hatsan BT65 in .22 & .25. Worked the crap outa those guns & myself to get the most I could get out of them & me. I liked the progress I was making. Sold those & bought a new FX Royale 500, HOLY CRAP, I'd become a really decent shooter. Didn't know it til I got a decent gun! Next I bought an FX Boss, .30, NOW my abilities started to show. All I ever wanted to do was be able to make a 75 yard squirrel kill. My personal best is 178 yards with the Boss (pellet shooting only) & some days hunting most of my kills are in the 75-135 yard range. I'm TOTALLY addicted again but at least this one won't end up with me doing time! I shoot & have become friends with some great guys & shooters (Centercut, Pesty3782, Socaloldman) & this journey has brought me gifts I'd never expected & opportunities to help out other air addicts like me. This forum is such an amazing venue to learn, connect, give back & grow as a shooter & a person. I feel myself to be a VERY fortunate man. My friend Nick has loaned me a .22 Bobcat that has become just too heavy for him (& I'm thinking of BEGGING him to sell it to me) & the fun just never ends! Made some great long distance pals too from here on the forum (Bigragu, Ezana4ce, Ponzo & others I'm forgetting to mention) & hooking up tomorrow with a guy from GTA forum (Shane) who, it turns out, lives 8 minutes from me. See, the fun never ends with this obsession!!! SO GLAD I got into it! Here's my current "quiver". Just LOVE the FX Original Smooth Twist platform! (Bobcat, Royale, Boss)

Gerry, awesome feel good story! I got into airguns because of certain rats I couldn't get with traps, bought a RWS Pro Meisterschutz and graduated to PCP's and like Gerry above, realized my shooting got better not because of me but from the better guns..I still can make a RAW's accuracy look average but it's definitely not the gun!

 

[delooper]

When I was 10 years old, my grandfather gave me a pump-action .22 rifle and say "you're 10 years old now, you should have your own gun".

I did quite a bit of pesting on our family farm in Alberta as a child.

PCP seems to be a pretty natural tool to gravitate towards, if you want a highly-tunable pesting apparatus. 

I'm 48 now. Have a Crosman P1322 and an Edgun Leshiy 2. 

 

[Csbrown5]

Gerry 

is that Fx Royale a 25 caliber?

 

[FelixS]

It started with a Daisy Red Rider variety BB rifle, then a Benjamin 317; that was early 70's. 3 or so years ago I had a ground squirrel problem, so I bought a Benjamin 397 which was disappointing to say the least. Then it was a Raptor order that took forever, so I bought a Bobcat during the wait. 9 Guns later, here we are. The million-dollar question: where does it end?

 

[Gerry52]

@Csbrown5, Yes, Royale 500 (.25). In the picture, front to back, Bobcat .22, Royale .25 & Boss .30

 

[DesertSilver]

Started at 4 for me when my dad bought me a Daisy BB gun. Would shoot it at birds on the power wires behind the house until one day didn't latch the cocking lever up where it's suppose to be and upon pulling the trigger discovered my mistake most painfully. Well that put an end of shooting BB guns for what seemed like a lifetime to a kid until I saved up and bought a blue streak Sheridan in my early teen years. Again went back to terrorizing the local bird on a wire population. Had it until mid 70's when it was stolen from my father in-law's cabin up in the desert. Then around 15 years later bought a Diana m34 in.177. and my passion for airguns reignited. Moved to a Diana m48 and gave the 34 to my son who left it behind the seat of a moving truck that he rented to move his family up to Barstow where he was stationed at ft Irwin. I still have the 48 which I've shot since the early 90's but have about 3 years ago got into PCP's and my savings account went down and down.